CH Robinson Worldwide Inc Stock Upgraded (CHRW)

CH Robinson Worldwide (Nasdaq:CHRW) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from a hold to buy.

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- CH Robinson Worldwide (Nasdaq: CHRW) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, good cash flow from operations, notable return on equity and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

CHRW's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 3.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 5.0%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.

The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.93, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.27, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.

Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 124.87% to $14.44 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, C H ROBINSON WORLDWIDE INC has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 11.01%.

Compared to where it was 12 months ago, the stock is up, but it has so far lagged the appreciation in the S&P 500. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.

The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. In comparison to other companies in the Air Freight & Logistics industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, C H ROBINSON WORLDWIDE INC has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has greatly exceeded that of the S&P 500.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., a third party logistics company, provides freight transportation services and logistics solutions to companies in various industries worldwide. CH Robinson Worldwide has a market cap of $8.7 billion and is part of the services sector and transportation industry. Shares are up 0.7% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.